gapes. He’d had a suspicion that he was going to find Mr. Coates behind this door... but he is dumbfounded all the same. How did she know? he wonders first, about Gladys’ vision. He’s afraid to look at her, suddenly terrified of his own sister, and what it all may mean...

His head is a tumult of visions... that wretched business in London, with poor Paddy, comes unbidden to to fore of his mind (What has that to do with this, the lucid part of his mind wonders distantly...), the townfolk’s obvious dislike of Heligan... the carvings on Grubb’s wall... and beneath it all. that dream, that dream... that horrid dream screaming at him... To Hel... to Hel... TO HEL!!!

Gladys’ question brings him back to his senses. He turns to face her, still terrified of her. He tries to answer her, but cannot find his tongue. He manages to nod stupidly.

stares at Gladys for a moment longer, silently, then blinks, recovering. “Yes... yes.” he says, his mind falling back into order. “Yes,” he adds a third time, sadly, looking at the body.

“Now, I suppose, we make sure this is, in fact, our Mr. Coates,” he says. He steps into the room, shining his torch around, watchful for any other surprises. Someone blocked that door, his reporter’s mind reminds him.

==================

OOC: Assuming no surprises, he’ll approach the body carefully and squat beside it, and see if he can find any sign that it is Mr. Coates. He won’t disturb the body just yet, just having a look around and examining the corpse more closely.

The whole area has, to a degree, become affected by the ceiling collapse. Percy ponders upon this and reflects that the obstruction of the door might simply have been due to this, not a deliberate act. Perhaps his own lack of athletic prowess made this debris seem a more effective deterrent?

Crouching carefully down as near as he can without disturbing anything he flashes his torch light across the scene. Gladys looks around nervously and rather distractedly... "I think we should wait for the constable to come back. Did he say he'd be coming back, I can't remember... Percy.. or shall we go and report it".

The body is not in an advanced state of decay.. it doesn't smell, though there is a smell of mold and damp in the area. The rubble pile is fairly widespread and consists of a variety of materials, light broken floorboards, plasterwork and a few larger lumps of ceiling joists. It's all soaked and damp.

The body is in the middle of this pile sandwiched and obstructed between the layers, it's also lying face-down. It's clearly male, wearing a reasonably tailored brown suit.

Although it's not easily seen through the rubble , the back of the corpses head is heavily matted in thick dried blood.

"Sir, Sir... this might have done it..." says Hakim.. pointing out one of the larger heavier fragments of ceiling joist.. it's got a patch of blood on it and had tumbled to the far side of the pile. Gladys, doing little else is near enough to warn the enthusiastic man-servant from picking it up to show you.

Amidst the rubble, it's difficult to identify the man, even if you knew what Mr Coates looked like... however, it looks like, with some difficulty, someone might be able to search the bodies jacket without disturbing the pile..

answers Gladys distantly, not taking his eyes from their survey of the scene. "I am not expecting the Constable back," he says. "We shall have to report this, I suppose." He's unenthusiatic about the idea, however, as he is doubtful of the good Constable's investigative abilites.

When Hakim shows him the bloody joist, he nods, and affirms Gladys' restraint. "Very good Hakim, very good. Do leave it be, for now," he suggests.

Percy considers before investigating the jacket. Even without an ID, this is probably Coates... and even if it isn't, it's still a body, and will need to be reported, no matter who it is. But Percy is too much the reporter not to do a little digging on his own, and he carefully searches the jacket.

OOC: To make the attempt is normally d1... but d2 because of the combined "Jenga" effect of the rubble and poor light (plus an additional +1 because of the point of threat I'll spend)= That will be a D3 Thievery check..

In the immortal words of Gm's everywhere.. "are you sure you want to do that?"

You can purchase up to 3 dice by giving me up to 3 points of threat....

Guess the difficulty comes from not disturbing the pile... if he just "hamfistedly" patted the jacket down, without concern for the integrity of the rubble, would that change the equation? Is that even an option?

That's exactly the reason for the difficulty.. trying not to "disturb a possible crime scene".. at least any more than necessary. Otherwise it'll just be moving some stuff and rifling the pockets.. . If you made the attempt and failed by one it might just make it difficult for someone to notice that the area had "been tampered with".. not a certainty. Fail by anymore (or doing so not caring if you did) would make it obvious.

gets close to the corpse, considering how best to pilfer the jacket pockets. He wiggles his fingers... and they feel like turkey saugages.

Reconsidering, he leans back away from the corpse. "That'll never do," he says aloud.

From his current vantage point, he looks around again. He looks at the hole in the ceiling and at the fireplace, in particular. Also, he looks through the rubble (without disturbing it) near Coates' outstretched hands... maybe he'd been carrying something when he was hit?

As he looks around, he gives voice to the nagging thought in his head. "Strange that the door was locked, with him inside. Did he lock it behind him, do you suppose?" he asks, to no one in particular.

Gazing upwards and towards the fireplace, it can be seen that, as to be expected there is a large hole in the ceiling directly above the majority of the pile of debris and the body. From this aspect the torch barely illuminates part of the ceiling of the floor above. That exposes another hole, the exact extents of it's size cannot be easily judged as the angle at which Percy can view it is obscured, because Percy himself is not directly below the hole..

However, Percy judges that the hole in this rooms ceiling is about ten feet square.. The fireplace is marble and appears untouched by the elements or damage from any of the falling debris. Other than that, it would be considered good quality, but is bare and otherwise unremarkable.

“Oh, there you are Tim. For Heaven’s sake, why are you standing behind me like a burglar?”

In response to his sister, he sighs. “No, I suppose you’re right Gladys. But please do wait out in the front hall with Tim. I would hate for us all to fall into... er... fall through the upper floor,” he explains weakly.

And I beg your pardon, I am quite agile, he thinks at her. I know you can hear me.

Percy heads up the wide central stairs from the entrance hallway, as he does so, he notices that the entranceway is overlooked by a banistered gallery that overhangs it. This start at the top of the stairs and extends round to either side before then forming two smaller staircases on either side.

Stopping briefly to look more carefully, he notices that although this gallery doesn't therefore form a complete perimeter overlooking the hall, when he shines his torch behind and upwards it does apparently continue along and above the Northern side of the hall (To the left.). Although how this area is reached is yet unknown.

At the top of the stairs, Percy is faced with a "T" junction with corridors widening to ten feet wide heading to the left and right. The wall directly ahead is panelled wood, and although it is currently bare, it has several dulled patches that indicated that paintings once hung here.

To get to the area above the drawing room Percy would need to head right.